interview with Stephanie Izard

Stephanie Izard, who won season four of Top Chef, is getting ready to not only open a restaurant in Chicago (Drunken Goat) but she's also working with winemakers out in Washington to develop some wines. I interviewed her for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/features/food/54784892.html

articles in Garden Design, Milwaukee Magazine and Wine Enthusiast

For Wine Enthusiast's September 2009 issue, I wrote about how to host a literary feast, taking novels like Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America (Seal Press 2006), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Vintage 2008) and Atonement (Anchor 2006) and suggesting wine and food pairings.

For Garden Design's July/August 2009 issue, I had the pleasure of chatting with Clover Chadwick, owner of Dandelion Ranch, a very chic (it's inside a barn in the middle of L.A.!) floral shop and design studio.

And finally, for Milwaukee Magazine's September 2009 issue, which features an awesome cover story about beating the recession (if you're local, check it out for some little-known money-saving tips on local attractions/entertainment), I wrote a fun short about Barbie's connections to Wisconsin. Did you know that she was born in the fictitious North Woods town of Willows, Wisconsin?

-Kristine

need some espresso-making tips?

I had a blast sitting down with Scott Lucey, barista trainer at Alterra Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee, and also 2009 Great Lakes Barista Champ. He also placed third in this year's U.S. Barista Competition.

You can read the interview in the August 2009 issue of Milwaukee Magazine.

Asian cooking

In today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel I interview Pat Tanumihardja, author of an upcoming book featuring Asian grandmothers and their recipes. Read it here: http://www.jsonline.com/features/food/52964812.html

-Kristine

Inspiration help in The Writer Magazine

The August 2009 issue of The Writer contains a short piece I wrote about how to find inspiring color names when writing fiction. I suggest looking at what house paints and artist's paints are named. While the article is not available on the magazine's web site (www.writermag.com), I highly recommend perusing the web site as there are links to many other helpful articles that appear in the magazine.